A petite person with big ideas, Sheehy shared research and insights with the audience at Eisenhower Medical Center’s Wellness Matters Speaker Series.

With 16 best-selling books under her belt — starting with “Passages,” which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for three years — Gail Sheehy came to town with advice on living with passion and purpose in all phases of life.

A petite person with big ideas, Sheehy shared research and insights with the audience at Eisenhower Medical Center’s Wellness Matters Speaker Series. Her wide-ranging topics included sexuality and marriage, caregiving and health.

“Marriage later in life can be the happiest,” she said. Even if the excitement and intimacy that you once had is gone, “it can be revived.”

“Women can experience sex and love after age 50 and revitalize their marriages,” she said, referring to her book, “Sex and the Seasoned Woman,” which describes many case histories.

Sheehy defined a “seasoned woman” as being “free of the demands of young children, needy husbands and demanding careers,” who find themselves ready for their “second adulthood.” They can be “bossy and submissive, strong and soft, a woman who knows who she is and is committed to living fully in the second half of life.”

Living fully seemed to resonate with audience member Karen Flahive of Cathedral City, who said she appreciated “much of what Sheehy had to say.” Approaching mid-life, Flahive, a nurse, said she is “looking ahead now to what I want to do next,” which may include a career change.

For her book, Sheehy interviewed 400 mature women who fell into five categories:

• The Passionate ones were “mostly independent working women, half of them divorced, still sexually active,” about 40 percent of the total.

• The Seekers, about 20 percent of the total, “wanted what the Passionates had.”

• The WMDs (“Women Married, Dammit”) were stuck in abusive or unfulfilling marriages and about a third had extramarital affairs.

• Status Quo women were simply “resigned to their marriage, with sex mostly a memory.”

• For Lower Libido women, “their marriage was on life support.”

Sheehy expressed hope for troubled marriages and relationships: “Sometimes something happens,” a vacation, a job change, or a move to another city, “and you fall in love all over again.”

When her husband had cancer, Sheehy was his caregiver for years. “You have to do what refreshes you to take care of yourself, like having coffee with a friend, going to the gym or taking a walk.”

Gloria Guttman of Rancho Mirage, a caregiver for her husband, said she read Sheehy’s books for years, which “gives you strength as a caregiver for others.”

“You can’t do it (caregiving) alone, Sheehy said. “Call a friend or family for support and keep them aware of what’s happening. If you don’t you will burn out.”